Baisakhi Festival 2019 - April 14 (Sunday)

Baisakhi is a seasonal festival with a special accent. It is celebrated all over Punjab on the first of Baisakh. This is the time when harvested crops are gathered in and the farmers exult in the fulfillment of their year s hard work.On this festival, the farmers join the merry-making with full gusto and do not mind walking for miles to be able to do so.

Since this fair is also an expression of prosperity- singing and dancing are its most enchanting features. The Punjab s famous Bhangra and Giddha are inextricably linked with this festival.Many fairs in the Punjab are held near the tombs and shrines of pirs. These fairs must have originated in a spirit of devotion to those saints and sages. The most famous among such fairs are the Chhapar fair, the Jarag fair, and the Roshni fair of Jagranyan.

The Significance of Baisakhi

Baisakhi marks the beginning of New Year, particularly in the northern part of India. It is among the few Indian festivals that have a fixed date. In Kerala, Baisakhi is known as "Vishu" and in Tamil Nadu, it is celebrated as "Puthandu".

Considered as a holy day, the devout celebrate the festival of Baisakhi with a dip in the holy rivers just around the break of dawn. It is on this day that Sun enters Aries, the first sign of Zodiac. This signifies ushering of the New Year.

It also signifies the end of harvest of the main crop. During Baisakhi the farmers pay thanks to the Lord Almighty for their fortune and pray for a better crop the next year. Baisakhi involves a lot of socializing where friends and relatives are invited and delicious meals are served.

Baisakhi in Punjab

In Punjab (the land of Green Revolution) particularly and in the northern belt of India in general, farmers perform their own prayers and rejoice. And on this day, they commence cutting their harvest.

The fields can be seen full of nature s bounty. Dressed in their typical folk attire, both men and women, celebrate the day with Bhangra and Gidda, the famous Punjabi dance forms. Sweets are distributed, old enmities are forgiven and life is full of joy, merriment and everyone seems to rejoice.

Baisakhi Legend and Celebrations

Baisakhi has had a new dimension added to it by Guru Gobind Singh. For it was on the day of Baisakhi in 1669, that he established the Khalsa Panth and gave a final impetus to the course of the earlier nine Gurus of Sikhism. A rural festival of North India, marking the beginning of the solar year (New year), celebrated in Punjab with great fervor. For the Sikhs the day is a collective celebration of New Year along with the commemoration of the founding of the Khalsa Panth (Sikh brotherhood) by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.

The holy book of the Sikhs, Granth Sahib is taken in a procession, led by the Panj Pyaras (five senior Sikhs) who are symbolic of the original leaders. The occasion is celebrated with great enthusiasm at Talwandi Sabo, where Guru Gobind Singh stayed for nine months and completed the recompilation of the Guru Granth Sahib in the Golden temple in Amritsar.

On the day of Baisakhi, water from all the sacred rivers of India is collected and then poured in to the huge tank surrounding the golden temple.